Vital Centers for Concentration 197 



begun the effort to obtain control of the mind ; 

 that wonderful instrument through which the dy- 

 namic power of thought manifests; by controlling 

 which alone we can hope to exercise the power for 

 good only. 



Not till we quiet the mind's useless activities, and 

 can hold it in leash, an obedient servant as it was 

 designed to be, can we hope to attain the higher 

 reward of concentration the joy the benedic- 

 tion of a realization of soul-consciousness. 

 This once achieved places a power for good under 

 the control of a soul-directed Will that can never 

 fail its possessor in any crisis. 



A certain measure of development of the psychic 

 senses comes as a natural attribute of growing spir- 

 ituality, but this is not a real attainment in itself 

 or for itself; and it varies greatly in degree in dif- 

 ferent constitutions and according to how it is em- 

 ployed. When made an end and aim by absorp- 

 tion in its phenomena, the activities of mere astral 

 life which may be even more trivial than on this ter- 

 restrial plane, it leads to gross abuse of the powers; 

 blocks irretrievably self-conquest and spiritual de- 

 velopment, and invites untold misery in manifold 

 forms. 



You have learned that thought is the creator of 

 force within these bodies; that is, the form of 

 force active within is largely determined by the 

 mind's habitual thoughts, and the ratio of the vi- 



